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So i have heard mention of the ability to get positional audio and eax going with openal for onboard sound but I haven't figured out how to actually install openal.

I have tried Creative's v1.1 installer but it didn't seem to work.
If someone could detail how to actually setup positional audio, and eax, for realtek onboard, in Thief it would be greatly appreciated.

So i have heard mention of the ability to get positional audio and eax going with openal for onboard sound but I haven't figured out how to actually install openal.

I have tried Creative's v1.1 installer but it didn't seem to work.
If someone could detail how to actually setup positional audio, and eax, for realtek onboard, in Thief it would be greatly appreciated.

If you talk about Thief: Deadly Shadows, I couldn't get it to work for Realtek.

For The Dark Project and The Metal Age, you'll need to install TFix and TafferPatcher respectively, then install this if you haven't yet:

I know there's ALchemy Universal. ALchemy is a program originally for EAX compatible Creative cards which puts a modified dsound.dll into your game folder which redirects EAX commands to OpenAL. ALchemy Universal is supposed to work on all cards, but I can't give a proof how well EAX is supported. You just gotta try it.

You'll also need OpenAL's software drivers installed, if you want this to work. Although people generally refer to the old version that the official OpenAL developers provided, I would recommend manually installing OpenAL Soft (download the binary files, and instructions are included with it). That is kept up to date and has the options for using HRTF, which is what you'll want to use if you want simulated surround (preferably with headphones, which HRTF is meant for).

Child Of Karras: Alchemy universal is not necessary for newdark, though for Deadly Shadows it's still useful. Just clarifying this for mikjames, seeing as he didn't state which thief game he wanted EAX emulation for.

I'm in the process of getting openal soft working, however it says I should copy the hrtf 44.1hz and 48hz files from the hrtf folder to a folder that doesn't exist on my computer, so i'm not having much luck with that.

Eax does appear to work after just installing the open al driver (not open al soft and no hrtf) but honestly it doesn't work all that well.
Maybe eax 3 and up sound much better but eax 2 that is use in Thief 2 seems to feature inaccurate reverb in many spots (noticeably doubled sounds rather than proper reverb) as well as some pretty nasty transitions.

I'm honestly more interested in cobbling together an xp rig with an Aureal soundcard at this point. The aureal demo on youtube sounds absolutely beautiful in comparison to eax: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5E0sXdX-Bc

It's a damn shame Aureal was bought out, we are only now starting to get a chance at good audio again with vr taking off.
It reminds of when lcds replaced crt's and it took us 10 years to even get close to the golden age we didn't know we had

There is a better option - to use the official Creative X-Fi MB3 driver. It emulates eax 1, 2 and 3 on every soundcard, even your realtek on windows 7 x64. The latest version also supports multichannel output. All you need is to add the game path in ALchemy utility. I've already had fun playing System Shock 2, Half-Life (won version), Aliens vs. Predator Classic and Thief 2 in true 5.1 with eax, just like in old days.

There is a better option - to use the official Creative X-Fi MB3 driver. It emulates eax 1, 2 and 3 on every soundcard, even your realtek on windows 7 x64. The latest version also supports multichannel output. All you need is to add the game path in ALchemy utility. I've already had fun playing System Shock 2, Half-Life (won version), Aliens vs. Predator Classic and Thief 2 in true 5.1 with eax, just like in old days.

Tried it and it isn't compatible with my Realtek Alc 883 chip as far as I can tell.
I'm looking into the modded X-fi mb2 drivers though.
Actually it looks like there are modded drivers available up to Realtek Driver Version 2.78 and they may support mb3.
I look into and see what I can get going.

There is a better option - to use the official Creative X-Fi MB3 driver. It emulates eax 1, 2 and 3 on every soundcard, even your realtek on windows 7 x64. The latest version also supports multichannel output. All you need is to add the game path in ALchemy utility. I've already had fun playing System Shock 2, Half-Life (won version), Aliens vs. Predator Classic and Thief 2 in true 5.1 with eax, just like in old days.

Will it work with an ASUS card? I have a Xonar u7 and I use OpenAL, the EAX is quite good but when Garret speaks, it is much louder than anything else. Also, there are some other sounds that are louder than others, and it's a bit disturbing, so I'd like to try something more advanced.

Tried it and it isn't compatible with my Realtek Alc 883 chip as far as I can tell.
I'm looking into the modded X-fi mb2 drivers though.
Actually it looks like there are modded drivers available up to Realtek Driver Version 2.78 and they may support mb3.
I look into and see what I can get going.

didnt work with Realtek ALC1150 either. i guess you'd need modded drivers to work with that.

I have a Soundblaster Z card and just use the standard OpenAL installation and configured in Thief 1 & 2 under the EAX option. I only have stereo and don't use headphones but it sounds pretty good though Thief Gold can sound a bit echoy for some reason. If anyone has an optimum EAX setup for stereo positional audio with Soundblaster Z cards, I'm open to advice.

My guess is it doesn't matter what setup you have with OpenAL, as it would work on any system.

The true advantage of EAX you will get only with ALchemy - it's a thing that emulates DirectHardware soundcard with native EAX support. But if you don't have an EAX-compatible soundcard you'll have to use "Alchemy Universal" version (which is cracked or whatever), otherwise any newer ALchemy should work.

If you're able to select EAX (not OpenAL) in your game, and the sound works, then it's ok, and you're ready to play like it's 1998.

If you're able to select EAX (not OpenAL) in your game, and the sound works, then it's ok, and you're ready to play like it's 1998.

To the tune of the Prince song I'm currently using the newer OpenAL Soft OpenAL32.dll which I just extracted from the archive, renamed, and dropped into my Thief folders. Now I'm getting true positional audio and can hear exactly where that drunken guard way up on that hidden walkway somewhere in Disorientation is. But getting to him or even just seeing him is now the problem. HELP!

There's a few small caveats, though; first one being that OpenAL Soft
doesn't have the EAX extension (it's long been deprecated in favor of
the newer EFX extension, also supported by Creative and covers the same
functionality), so if the app uses the old EAX interface instead of EFX,
you won't have effects.

so since OpenAL Soft will not have the EAX effects, the other option is to remain with OpenAL with ALchemy? EAX effects when stepping into different spaces like corridors, cathedrals and caves seem nice to have.

or does this A3D wrapper work? i can't tell from this video, but he says it is working: